SLOW 1.0 performance vs 1.0RC3 - What changed ? (1 Viewer)

[Owlsroost]

Steve - it might be worth checking out this thread - https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/installation-configuration-support-53/nvidia-6800gt-outofvideomemory-55844/index2.html#post389186 - particularly the bios 'AGP aperture size' fix posted by Swede.

Tony

 

[steve walsh]

AGP Aperture size

Hi Tony,

I've found the appropriate setting in my bios - it was set to 64MB.
It could be increased to 512MB so of course, I've gone straight up to 512MB !
Sadly this doesn't seem to have had any effect on my v1.0 system.
Is 512MB too much ? The forum thread you linked to mentioned increasing to 256MB.
What exactly is the AGP aperture size ?

Also, I have another AGP setting in my bios - AGP bus speed (currently 66MHz) which goes up to 100MHz
Should I alter this ? (when (test)changing this parameter, increasing the AGP speed automatically decreases the PCI speed !)

Thanks again for your help.
Steve

 

[Owlsroost]

> What exactly is the AGP aperture size ?

I think it's the 'window' size that the system has into the video card RAM.

It's beginning to feel like this might not be a video card problem after all (since you've tried/eliminated most 'tweaks' now).

If this is a single-seat system, have you tried the 'MS Loopback adaptor' mod - https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/newcomers-forum-240/msloopback-device-singleseat-users-51028/ - I'm sure my live TV got more responsive after doing this (but I'm running Vista).

Have you tried wiping out /re-installing all the database stuff when you install MP ?

Tony

 

[Swede]

You don't seem to have a GPU problem but a reception problem. Your TSreader log is full of:

07-03-2009 12:13:26.515 [2c8]Audio Continuity error... 0 ( prev 8 )
07-03-2009 12:13:26.531 [2c8]Video Continuity error... 1 ( prev b )
07-03-2009 12:13:26.531 [2c8]Audio Continuity error... c ( prev 8 )
07-03-2009 12:13:26.656 [2c8]Video Continuity error... 8 ( prev b )
....
Have you tried the latest SVN. It has a better TSreader.

How big should I set AGP Aperture size in my BIOS?

First of all, AGP Aperture memory will not be used until your video card's on-board memory is running low. That means it will usually not impact your gaming performance because developers are trying hard to not exceed the on-board memory limits.
The bigger your video memory, the smaller your Aperture Size could be. However with later games requiring more and more texture memory a good number seems to be 128MB Aperture Size for all cards with 64 MB to 256 MB Video RAM.
Setting the Aperture Size to HUGE values will not increase performance because this merely sets the maximum amount of physical memory that can be used. It only makes the GART Table bigger because every 4K page has its own entry, no matter if allocated or not.
Setting the Aperture Size to too small values could result in running out of available texture memory especially on a low-mem video card. It is also possible that developers make use of the GART's features by creating textures as 'non-local'.

If you experience in-game stuttering try playing with the size of your Aperture.

 

[grandalf]

I also have problems with sluggish performance and other random problems since V.1. Channel changes taking around 10-15 seconds, even on a quad core Athlon with 2 gigs memory. I tried a complete re-install with the latest SVN. No real difference, apart from now it will not record, just leaves them flagged up as waiting, even though the time is passed. I think RC2 seemed the most stable to date. Got me a lot of grief the other half, missing her proggies.

 

[steve walsh]

Well, to "finish off" this thread for me here's a quick, and long-overdue update on my system...

I've gone ahead and purchased a better graphics card, namely the "Force3D HD 3650 512MB DDR2 VGA DVI TV Out AGP Graphics Card" from Ebuyer, as suggested by Owlsroost

I've also re-installed everything, and ensured that MediaPortal and MySQL are on separate disks (on separate IDE channels).

Overall, my performance is now acceptable - everything works (almost) as fast as a normal TV/Freeview setup.
We're currently running (dual boot on separate disks) v1.0.2 and v1.1.0 (SVN builds) and both work (as above)

Everyone is happy, especially the other half - although she loathes to admit it !

I've also upgraded the cooling on the HD3650 - the stock fan was a bit "whiney" so I've swapped it with the Scythe Mushashi dual-fan jobbie.
It's a beast and fills my case - but it is nice and silent.

Thanks to everyone with their advice.

I hope some of the info here helps others.

And as a final upgrade (not much more I can do with my P4 system, and this upgrade will be transferable to a new system) I'm thinking of getting some SATA disks (a couple of 1+ TB disks)
However, due to the age of my system I have no SATA controller so I'm looking at a PCI (not express) SATA controller.
Does anyone know if this (SATA via PCI) give me a speed increase over my PATA disks ?

Thanks again.